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What a day! What a day! Of course, I started out with my constant breakfast after sleeping ALL night! Finally, a night of undisturbed sleep. I have been waiting for that! After breakfast, Jean-François and I walked a few blocks to the Musée des Compagnons du Tour de France. This is a museum at a school for traditional artisan carpenters, bricklayers or stone cutters, cabinet makers and/or locksmiths. The training at this school is based on the handing down of the craftsmanship. The workmen make a journey of their profession called "Tour de France" (nothing to do with the bicycle race!) because they travel from worksite to worksite during their training to become proficient. Each year there is a competition open to every French citizen to showcase the best of the French workmen, but the winners are most often "compagnons". I am attaching a picture of a couple of the winners from years gone by. These objects are extremely intricate and complicated and done in miniature (as compared to the real things in buildings). The workmanship is stunning and simply astounding! Check out www.compagnons.org if you are interested to know more about this. After the museum, J-F and I went to
"centre ville" (downtown) to a bookstore while Colette prepared a very delicious lunch. We arrived back home to find a salad with avocado, lettuce, mushrooms, tomatoes and large shrimp as well as some wonderful fried aubergine (eggplant). Colette also whipped up (literally) a fresh mayonnaise to enjoy with the salad. Of course, we had wine with lunch! We had cherry clafouti (a kind of cake) and espresso for dessert. After lunch, a sieste was in order 😊 At around 4 pm we got in the car and drove to a town called Génissac and went to the Chateau Belle Garde to buy some fantastic Bordeaux wine. I left the chateau with 5 litres of red wine, 5 L of rosé wine and a bottle of white wine for my mother! Rest assured, it will take me all the then next 4 weeks to drink it all! And, I will be sharing when Ken arrives 😊 We had a nice chat with M. Eric Duffau, the proprietor, and he says he can send wine to Calgary if anyone wants to go in on an order with us! After the "vignoble" (vineyard) we drove to Saint Emilion - a very old and
M. Eric Duffau
Chateau de Belle Garde picturesque town surrounded by vineyards. Any wine connoisseur and even those not well versed in wine regions will recognise Saint Emilion. I am attaching a couple of photos of the town. Any green you see in the landscape is either a tree to grape vines! We had a delicious dinner at a brasserie set beside a field of grape vines. It was a convivial dinner with my superb hosts with, once again, good food, good conversation and great people! My mother arrives tomorrow night and there is nothing planned for the day so I think I'll head out on my own and take some pictures of the belle ville de Bordeaux! I have added some photos of the back yard of Chez Espérance!
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